Pimontal or the Walker Cree File Hills Reserve

In collections

An image of a Native leader posing for a photograph.
Edgar Rossie was prominent photographer active in Regina from 1904 to his death in 1942. Edgar Rossie was born in 1875 in London, Ontario to a prominent mercantile family. He started his career in photography at an early age working a long side his uncle Frank Westlake a longstanding London photographer.
Rossie moved to western Canada in the summer of 1899 settling in Winnipeg purchasing the studio and equipment of an already established photography business. By 1901 he had established his reputation in the Manitoba capital having displayed photos in the Manitoba Art Gallery as well as being featured in the local news paper.
His business flourished and he was soon commissioned to photograph the Royal North-West Mounted Police at their Regina depot. Regina and its people appealed to him and he soon moved himself and his business to the city in 1904. Here his reputation grew as he turned his lens on his new found home. He documented everything from the building of the Legislative Building to the Regina Cyclone of 1912. Well known politicians and foreign dignitaries sat for portraits, of the most notable were King Edward VIII in 1919 and every Prime Minister, Cabinet Minister and Member of Parliament since Saskatchewan became a province in 1905. Rossie also has the distinction of taking the first moving pictures ever shot in the province.
Rossie did not, however, confine himself to photographing celebrities. After the Great War he took what might be considered his most valuable series of portraits known as the “Indian Heads” This is a group of head shots of Saskatchewan Native Leaders taken at a province wide meeting in Regina. The subjects include many prominent native leaders of the period including Ben Pasqua of the Pasqua Reserve , Day Walker of the File Hill Reserve , Ometaway from the Muscopetung Reserve and White Eagle, Charlie Fox and Rock Thunder of the Piapot Reserve.
The exact date of these photographs is difficult to determine. They could not have been taken later than 1926 when two of the portraits where hung at that years Royal Photographic Society Exhibition. An obvious guess would place them in 1919 on the occasion of the Prince of Wales` visit to the capital. Not only is it logical that a royal visit would call for a meeting of the chiefs in full regalia, but it is thought the Prince either asked for or was presented with a set of these photos.
Credit: Brock V. Silversides "Edgar Rossie: Dean of Saskatchewan Photographers" , Saskatchewan History. Vol. XLII, Winter 1989.

Edgar Rossie was prominent photographer active in Regina from 1904 to his death in 1942. Edgar Rossie was born in 1875 in London, Ontario to a prominent mercantile family. He started his career in photography at an early age working a long side his uncle Frank Westlake a longstanding London photographer. Rossie moved to western Canada in the summer of 1899 settling in Winnipeg purchasing the studio and equipment of an already established photography business. By 1901 he had established his reputation in the Manitoba capital having displayed photos in the Manitoba Art Gallery as well as being featured in the local news paper. His business flourished and he was soon commissioned to photograph the Royal North-West Mounted Police at their Regina depot. Regina and its people appealed to him and he soon moved himself and his business to the city in 1904. Here his reputation grew as he turned his lens on his new found home. He documented everything from the building of the Legislative Building to the Regina Cyclone of 1912. Well known politicians and foreign dignitaries sat for portraits, of the most notable were King Edward VIII in 1919 and every Prime Minister, Cabinet Minister and Member of Parliament since Saskatchewan became a province in 1905. Rossie also has the distinction of taking the first moving pictures ever shot in the province. Rossie did not, however, confine himself to photographing celebrities. After the Great War he took what might be considered his most valuable series of portraits known as the “Indian Heads” This is a group of head shots of Saskatchewan Native Leaders taken at a province wide meeting in Regina. The subjects include many prominent native leaders of the period including Ben Pasqua of the Pasqua Reserve , Day Walker of the File Hill Reserve , Ometaway from the Muscopetung Reserve and White Eagle, Charlie Fox and Rock Thunder of the Piapot Reserve. The exact date of these photographs is difficult to determine. They could not have been taken later than 1926 when two of the portraits where hung at that years Royal Photographic Society Exhibition. An obvious guess would place them in 1919 on the occasion of the Prince of Wales` visit to the capital. Not only is it logical that a royal visit would call for a meeting of the chiefs in full regalia, but it is thought the Prince either asked for or was presented with a set of these photos. Credit: Brock V. Silversides "Edgar Rossie: Dean of Saskatchewan Photographers" , Saskatchewan History. Vol. XLII, Winter 1989.